University of Virginia Library

9
A dreame on his Mistris my Ladie Glammis

Whill as the silent shaddie night
Did with her courtens blacke
Ou'rcouer Rheas fruictfull face
And being colde and wacke
By sympathie with mortall braines
Our members make of leade
And stealing all our senses make
Ws lye a while as deade.
Then whill I was in this estate
The God with golden wings,
Who entring at the ports of horne
So manie monstres brings,
And changing into sundrie shapes
By strange and subtle slight,
Does make ws heare without our eares
And see but eyes or light.
This strange and subtle God, I saye,
Of late appear'd to me,
And by the hand my Mistres ledd,
Loe here she is quoth he,
Whose presence breeds as manie ioyes
As absence breeds thee woes,
Loe here the harbour of thy hart
Loe here thy onlie chose
Loe here she is who makes thee trade
The statelie forcked hill,
Whose pleasant grasse beginnes to fade
So trampled by thee still,
Loe here she is who makes thee drinke
The christall siluer spring
Of flying horse and riding foule
As ancient Poëts sing,
Loe here the subiect and the wings
Of thy high flying verse
That mountes aboue the flammie vaults
And to the heauen does pearse.
With this me thought she bowed her doune
And ioyned the rubies sine,
(That hides her iuorie rankes and smells
Of Nectar) vnto mine,
Sine with her soft and silken hands
About my necke she layes
A tablet and an Amethyst
And silent slipps her wayes.
Bot loe my minde so passion'd was
My hart so sturr'd withall
With ioye extreame, as made them soone
My senses to recall.
And looke how soone from slugglish sleepe
I perfectlie awooke,
Euen at the first (ô miracle)
Into my hand I tooke
These tokens hunge about my necke
(As I hade dream'd before)
What Deïtie (quoth I amaz'd)
For this shall I adore:
Sume God or Angell suirlie hath
This present to me brought,
For if on anie naturall dreames
Hade rauished bene my thought,
Then ather of the humours foure
The cheefe that did abounde,
By sympathie with brethren foure
Wherof was form'd this rounde,
And with the seasons of the yeare
Wolde vexed haue my braine,
If bloode domin'd with bloodie iarres
In spring tyme, and againe,
If cholere raign'd with rauening fires
In Sommers pearching heate,
If phlegme did with drowning floods
When Hyades holds there seate,
If melancholie earth and night
With heauie things and blacke,
When frozen Saturne rules with snowe
The place wolde suirlie take:
Or els the things I last hade thought
Hade done or wish'd to be
They hade although imperfectlie
In dreame appear'd to me,
And so by nature hade I dream'd
The thing I dream'd indeede,
For I confesse that Idee oft
My rauish'd minde dois feede,
Bot then how soone I hade awack'd
And Morpheus flowen awaye,
No token hade he left behinde
As now this wedd it laye:
Then counting it sume heauenlie gift
And sent me from aboue,
I cust me narrowlie to guesse
What coulde the meaning proue,
And so beganne both wp and doune
To tosse, to wiewe, to spie—
The tablet and the Amethyst
There secrets for to trie.
Thou Lycian Lord that Deïtie
Whome Delphos did adore,
Whose shining coache doe saphirs blewe
And rubies red decore,
The sacred Sisters Monarch greate,
The spirit that did inspire
With oracles the Sybills sage
Inflam'd with heauenlie fire,
O thou that mysteries can reueale
And future things foreseis
Assist my seeking out of this
And open cleare mine eyes.
The Amethyst in forme of hart
Doeth signifie the hart
And constant loue vnchangeable
That is vpon my part,
And as the colours of this stone
Are purple mix'd with graye,
So flames of loue my earthlie parts
Consumes me day by daye.
The secret vertues that are hidd
Into this pretious stone
Indues me with meete qualities
For seruing such a one.
For as this stone by secret force
Can soueraignlie remeade
These daizeled braines whome Bacchus strength
Ou'rcomes as they were deade,
And can preserue ws from the harme
Of the envenomed sting
Of poysoned cuppes, that to our tombe
Vntymelie does ws bring,
So shall my harte be still preserued
By vertue from aboue,
From staggering like a drunken man
Or wauering into loue:
Bot by this soueraigne antidote
Of her whome still I serue
In spite of all the poysoned lookes
Of Dames I shall not swerue.
And speciallie with courage bolde
This stone can furnish me
That with my conquering hand I may
Enforce my foes to flie,
For suire he can not worthie be
To be accompted deare
By anie Dame that in his brest
A womans hart dois beare.
And therfor for my part I wowe
If as the rumours be
Of iarrs and broyles, I happen in
Effect the same to see,
I shall not from the enemies sight
To anie part remoue,
Vnkithing once in honour of
My Mistres and my loue:
But onlie mot I conquered be
And onelie will I yeelde
To Cupids shott, whose firie darts
Resist coulde neuer sheelde.
And lastlie as this stone hath force
A hunter for to aide,
In end to catche his pray, the fruict
Of all his trauell made,
So as I am an prentise past
Into that Princelie game,
Whose hounds and horns through rockes and woodes
Makes Echo answer them,
I trust by vertue of this stone
To winne and holde the pray
That prayes on me, and is of all
My passion'd thoughts the stay.
Bot loe I long to turne me to
The tablet made of golde,
And all without and in the same
At length for to beholde.
Of purest golde the tablet made
Which by the fire is fin'd,
Her chastnes pure does represent
In bodie both and mind,
The crawling scores of ameling blacke
That on the golde are wrought,
The diuers passions represents
That walters in her thought.
One of the leaues on vtter side
A nacked man does beare,
Whome Phœbus rosts with hote reflexe
And stinging flees doe teare,
Yett sitting in the forrest greene,
As senceles of his harme,
By harmonie of violl sweete
He neuer irkes to charme
The rauish'd foules and beasts about,
Esteeming so there ioye,
As makes him quite for to forgett
His grieuous sore anoye.
This man not onlie represents
Her Siren voyce diuine,
Wherewith she makes the dullest eares
And hardest harts encline,
Bot as his dittie sayes, To please
The rest he suffers paine,
So she her Princesse serues of loue
Without respect of gaine.
The other on the vtter side
The Sunne hath shining bright
Into the midst, with stars about
Bot darckned by his light
And as that dittie sayes, As Sunne
Amongst the stars does shine,
So she her sexe surpasseth far
In vertues most diuine:
That Sunne of whome I sung before
Whose absence made me flie
Aboue the skies, ô Sunne to seeke
Her shaddowe into the.
Bot if into these former verse
I soar'd with Eagle wings,
Then Mistres thanke your selfe for them
That by your vertue sings.
Bot greatest comfort is to me
To spie the inward part,
Wheras ane hand does holde me thinke
My onelie Mistres hart,
Whill Cupide with his bended bowe
And golden arrowe aime,
To shoote his subtle firie shaft
For pearcing of the same:
Bot that her hand does holde her hart
I take it for to be,
That willinglie she letts her hart
Be shotte into for me.
The inward of the other leafe
It emptie does remaine,
Which if my guesse deceaue me not,
Is ordain'd to containe,
The art of sume Apelles fine,
The portraict of her face,
To giue vnto the workemanship
Of all the rest a grace:
For as the rest does represent
Her qualities most rare,
So shoulde her selfe, though viuelie, no,
Yett best it can be there.
And suire the Gods aboue they haue
Decreed as seemes to me,
That as the tablet and the stone
Both knitt together be
Euen by a string, the tablet like
To her, to me the stone,
So shall our loue whill Atrope cutt
The threed, be knitt in one.
Thus haue I redd my dreame ye see
With wise Apollos aide,
And if this be the verrie trueth
That I herin haue saide,
Then am I gladd of such a guesse,
Bot if I be deceau'd,
And in the opening of a dreame
Haue ather dream'd or reau'd,
Yett wellcume be a gladd deceate,
For as into my sleepe,
My dreame deceaued me, so my guesse,
In gladnes doth me keepe.
Now may ye see ô Titan mine,
No distance far of place,
Nor other thoughts can out of me
The thought of yow deface,
In absence are ye present still
And euer so in sight,
No wonder is, what Monarch may
Resist a womans might.